Dulaney-Browne Library: Musician's Health Resources: Home

OCU-owned books on musician's health

The Musician's Way

In The Musician's Way, veteran performer and educator Gerald Klickstein combines the latest research with his 30 years of professional experience to provide aspiring musicians with a roadmap to artistic excellence. Written in a conversational style, The Musician's Way presents an inclusive system for all instrumentalists and vocalists to advance their musical abilities and succeed as performing artists.

Coordinate Movement for Pianists

Drawing from experience in the fields of piano instruction, medicine, and Body Mapping, author Lisa Marsh presents a detailed discussion-complete with anatomical drawings and music examples-about the types of movement that contribute to a healthy, fluid, and versatile piano technique.

Anatomy of the Voice

The first comprehensive, fully-illustrated approach to the voice that explains the anatomy and mechanics in detailed yet down-to-earth terms, for voice users and professionals of all kinds This book is the first to explain, in clear and concise language, the anatomy and mechanics of the mysterious and complex bodily system we call the voice.

Healthy String Playing

Whether it's coping with overuse problems, conquering performance anxiety, or just keeping your body in great string-playing shape, experts from the pages of Strings magazine will help you in all areas of player wellness. This handy guide includes helpful tips from performers, teachers, students and doctors to keep you playing at your best.

The Vocal Athlete

The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Wellbeing

In recent years, a growth in dance and wellbeing scholarship has resulted in new ways of thinking that place the body, movement, and dance in a central place with renewed significance for wellbeing. This title examines dance and related movement practices from the perspectives of neuroscience and health, community and education, and psychology and sociology to contribute towards an understanding of wellbeing, offer new insights into existing practices, and create a space where sufficient exchange is enabled.

Complete Vocal Fitness

This title is a primer on sport-specific training for vocal athletes and is also a guide to how the vocal instrument functions. You will find accessible descriptions of the fundamental components of vocal anatomy - laryngeal function, articulation and resonance - explaining their movements, their interaction with one another, their integration with the anatomy of breathing and alignment, and relating them to common non-anatomical terminology often used in the voice studio.

Natural Biodynamics

This comprehensive volume is a graduate-level text in human biodynamics, written in the unified categorical language of modern differential geometry and topology. Combining mathematics, physics and robotics with human physiology, this is the first book that describes all levels of human biodynamics, from musculo-skeletal mechanics to the higher brain functions.

Wired for Music

Traveling from state-of-the-art science labs to a remote village in Zimbabwe, Adriana Barton's investigation of what music is really for gets to the heart of music's profound effects on the human body and brain. Blending science and story, Wired for Music shows how our species' age-old connection to melody and rhythm is wired inside us.

Sensitive Subjects

This is a list of sensitive subjects and their corresponding Dewey Decimal numbers so that you can find books and materials on these topics in the Dulaney-Browne Library.

Birth control, pregnancy, abortion, women’s health: 363.46, 613.04244, 613.9, 618

Cancer 616.99

Child abuse 362.76

Death & grief 155.937, 306.9

Depression, stress, anxiety, trauma 616.85

Domestic violence 362.829

Drug addiction 362.29

Eating disorders 616.8526

Finances 332.024

Gun violence 363.33

Homelessness, poverty 362.5

LGBTQIA+ issues 306.76

Mental illness 362.2, 616.89

Perfectionism, failure, success, self-help 155.24, 158.1

Personal health & fitness 613

Race issues 305.8

Sexual assault & rape 362.88

Suicide 362.28

We've got your back!

Musician's Health Resources

Student health and wellness is an important topic on the hearts and minds of all faculty and staff here at Oklahoma City University. Students here are regularly presented with concepts and ideas to aid in establishing continued physical and mental well being as it relates to those music activities at this university. These concepts and ideas may include: 1) attention to improved practice and performance techniques, 2) appropriate safety procedures for moving and handling all types of music equipment, and 3) information regarding hearing, vocal, and musculoskeletal health and injury prevention. This informational page highlights health and wellness related readings already available at or through OCU's resources, and provides students with health professionals’ presentation slides, as well as a selection of websites that are best able to explain topics concerning musician's health and wellness.

Any student needing special accommodations due to a disability may contact Disability & Access Services via email at [email protected] or call Kara Morrow at 405-208-5895. More information on Disability & Access Services and their policies, plus the portal to apply for accommodation can be found on their webpage here.

Any student experiencing mental or emotional issues who desires free, confidential, clinical counseling is encouraged to contact the University Counseling Center at Oklahoma City University at 405-208-7901 to schedule an appointment. Students may also email [email protected] to arrange for assistance. For after hours mental health emergencies, please call the Oklahoma City University Campus Police at 405-208-5001. The Campus Assessment Response and Education (CARE) Team is another resource available to OCU students.

Selected Articles on Musician's Health

Musician's Health Topics: Selected Articles

General:

Being A Healthy Musician from Royal College of Music Upbeat Magazine Spring 2020.

A New Look at Musician's Health

Setting the Stage: Conversations in performing arts health. A recorded series of webinars produced by the Texas Center for Performing Arts Health with conversations with experts in the field.

If you wish to find a doctor in your area who specializes in performing arts injuries, consult The Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) international directory of its members. Also see the "referral desk" link.

Hearing Loss / Hearing Loss Prevention

The American Academy of Audiologists. Locate audiologists worldwide.

College Music Faculty Views About Hearing Protection Use and Hearing Conservation Training By Adrienne Rubinstein Hearing Review 7 February 2013.

Conductor Awareness of, Knowledge of, and Attitude Toward Sound Intensity Levels Generated During Ensemble-based Instructional Activities in College-level Schools of Music by Arron J. Albin.

Hear the Music: Hearing Loss Prevention for Musicians, by Marshall Chasin, Ph.D. (Westone, 2001). A practical 93-page booklet.

How Hearing Works, by Tom Harris. From HowStuffWorks.com.

Listen While You Work: Hearing Conservation for the Arts. Free ebook, (2001).

Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention. Guidelines from NIOSH; broadly applicable.

"No fortissimo? Symphony told to keep it down," by Sarah Lyall, (The New York Times, April 20, 2008).

Portable music and its risk to hearing health, by Brian Fligor Hearing Review 14 March 2008. How concerned should we be about MP3 and other personal music players? What should we define as “too much or too loud?”

Study Provides First Guidelines for Safe Levels of iPod Music Listening Hearing Review 20 November 2006. A new analysis of iPods and other portable, digital music players by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Children’s Hospital in Boston has produced the first-ever detailed guidelines for safe listening levels using earphones

Will playing in orchestra damage our hearing? from the Music and Brain Blog at University of Toronto